Charges Dropped Against Detainee 063

Charges Dropped Against Detainee 063

The
Associated Press
reports this morning
that Pentagon officials have dropped military commissions charges (for now) against Mohammed al-Qahtani—better known as Detainee 063 after the
Time
cover story
detailing his interrogation. Prosecutors alleged that al-Qahtani was the "20th hijacker," who narrowly missed participating in the 9/11 attacks after being detained at a Florida airport. However, the prosecution stalled because of government admissions that some evidence against al-Qahtani was gleaned through coercive interrogation (read:
torture
), like water-boarding, and that al-Qahtani himself was harshly treated (read: tortured) at Gitmo.

And so, yet again, the decision to "take the gloves off" in prisoner interrogations comes back to haunt us. The prosecution of al-Qahtani should have been an opportunity for the government to prove its case against this defendant and al-Qaida—and to confer some legitimacy on America's war on terrorism through the legal process. Instead, the military commissions remain mired in a morass of legal problems. And this particular prosecution may never go forward, beacuse it was
tainted by torture
.

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Correction, May 14, 2008:
This post originally contained a photo of a man identified as Mohammed al-Qahtani. However, the man pictured was not the Mohammed al-Qahtani discussed in the post/article. The photograph has been removed.

Phillip Carter is an Iraq veteran who now directs the veterans research program at the Center for a New American Security.

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